Hey fam! Thanks for the emails, you guys are the best. Mom it sounds like the Book of Mormon activity went really well! Bishop Forsyth really knew what was up when he called you guys to be the activities chair people! I'm sure Brother Lindorf was hilarious too, haha. Could you get me his address? I would love to write him and hear more about how he is doing. Also, I'm happy to hear that Grandma continues to get better and that the Philly party was fun! So things up here are still going great! People are coming out of the wood work who are ready to be baptized and it's exciting! To answer your question Mom, we cover 2 stakes now with a total of 18 wards. We get fed pretty much every single night and so I'm eating WAY better than last transfer, that's for sure, which is part of the 15 pounds I've put on, haha. We haven't spoken in church yet up here but next week starts a long line of speaking in wards, which should be fun! The girl S that we found last week is 10 years old and we set a baptismal date with her for the 22nd but the Bishop wants to hold off a little while because he thinks it's too soon but she really wants to be baptized so that will be coming up! Also we are going to baptize this awesome kid named J who is 13 on the 29th! There are a few families who aren't members who have been coming to church so Elder Hernandez and I are super excited about them and their potential!

The coolest thing ever happened this week. We had Zone Conference, and we had a sweet special guest. His name is Alex Boye, and he is one of the 2 black men in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He came and spoke to us and sang to us for about an hour and a half and I felt like I had died and gone to Heaven. It was epic! When he was 16 he got kicked out of his house in London because he refused to go buy liquor for his uncle anymore after he converted. The day he got kicked out he had no idea what to do and so he turned to the scriptures. He read D and C 122 where the Lord talks to Joseph Smith about how his trials will be for his gain. Alex Boye said that made him mad to read that because of the situation he was in but than he read the verse after that which says" The Son of Man hath descended below them all, art thou greater than He" After that he said he knew he had no reason to complain. That scripture is so true and powerful. Who are we to complain?? The Savior went through everything and he never complained. That hit me really hard. Also he said the works without faith is dead. We can go around as much as we want doing things and trying to find people but nothing will ever happen unless we have faith that our works will produce. There was so much he said that was really inspiring. He also talked about blacks in the priesthood and how Joseph Smith when he ran for president, one of his main platforms that was he would abolish slavery if he became president and that was one of the main reasons the saints got driven from Missouri. Also every reference in the Book of Mormon that refers to "cursed with a skin of blackness" really means spiritual darkness. All the footnotes to those scriptures talk about spiritual darkness. Very profound and something I had never thought about. Also he talked about Proverbs 23:7, which says " As a man thinketh, so is he" If we think greatness, than we will be great and greatness will follow us. Thinking great is so key! Never settle for mediocrity, the Lord requires more than mediocrity out of us as Saints. I have to get going but I love you all very much!
Love, Elder Powers